The song tackles racism and xenophobia which is a topic close to vocalist Dave F. Bello’s heart. The track takes its name from the title of his fathers book “Marine Tigers”. He had this to say about the lyrical content:

“This song, its video, and my father’s new book all tell the story of being made to feel unwelcome, whether by a country, its people, its government, or all of the above. As we are flying back from our first, wonderful tour to Brazil, I could not be happier to release a song about my family’s history with the United States….We wrote this in opposition to Donald Trump and all xenophobes“

The band will be releasing their new album “Always Foreign” on September 29th viaEpitaph.

Connecticut emo/rock act The World is a Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid To Die have announced the release of a new album. “Always Foreign” is out on Epitaph on September 29th. “When we started writing we were fresh off Trump being elected, so there’s an anger to the album that’s different from what we’ve done in the past,” says TWIABP vocalist David F Bello. “There’s a lot more resistance thinking throughout the songs—not in a way that’s strictly anti-Trump, but also addressing things like white supremacy and controlling elements of the state.”

To mark the announcement, the band are streaming advance track “Dillon And Her Son” over at The Fader. The album is the followup to 2015’s “Harmlessness”.

In regards to the release of the track, the band posted on their Facebook: While this track didn’t seem to fit on Harmlessness, the feeling it evokes seems more appropriate to recent times. The artwork for the song depicts a modern-day Terracotta Army being torn down. It’s unsettling to see the voices of positive change in the community around you get drowned out within a world of dated and regressive ideals. In an effort to help make those voices of change heard, we’re permanently donating all the Bandcamp proceeds from this track to the non-profit and nonpartisan group the ACLU.

The last release from The World Is was album “Harmlessness,” released September 25th on Epitaph Records.

The first time I encountered The World Is A Beautiful Place And I Am No Longer Afraid To Die was at a live show, and it was definitely a strange one. The people in the audience weren’t really sure how to respond to this music that was both angry, yet reserved and somber; other than calmly swaying. Yet, the longer I was there, the more I felt the music surround me and eventually it seemed to speaking to some deep seated loneliness I was experiencing. The only problem was that as soon as I walked away from the venue, I couldn’t remember a single song they’d actually preformed. Listening to Harmlessness, I more or less have the same experience.
The album definitely starts out strong. “You Can’t Live Forever” delivers a slow, soothing guitar riff, which is then accompanied by David Bello’s calm, monotone singing of pseudo-philosophical phrases like “you’re harmless in your mind, you’re formless in the night”. By the time a series of violins kick in at the halfway mark, the whole thing feels like a strange lullaby. The song then gets a burst of energy as a drum, an electronic zither, and even a second vocalist, all join the mix. This crescendo continues to build before finally settling down for an aftermath that’s just kind of warm and tingly.
The album is littered with these tonal back-and-fourths, with a song starting slow, only to build up to something louder and more forceful. On an individual song level these progressions almost always works, but they’re also pretty overused. “We Need More Skulls” is bursting with this sense of controlled anger, with phrases like “We set up a safety net, but it was above our heads” being repeated again and again as the guitar shredding grows more shrill and the drums pound even harder. But that a sequence like this feels a little cheapened when it’s mimicked in “January 10th 2014”, and “Ra Patera Dance”.
That’s not to say that none of the songs are trying anything new. “The Word Lisa” has an energetic, really popping beat, that uses the zither to give it this childlike sense of innocence. Meanwhile, the lyrics of the song look back longingly on a long-dead relationship in a way that doesn’t feel bitter, but rather just joyfully nostalgic. But once again, it’s this repetition, along with the minimalist lyrics, that make the songs start to really blend together.

“Mental Health” is a nice exception; keeps it slow and purposeful pace throughout, maintaining a drumbeat at the same pace of a human heartbeat. This calm regularity- combined with lyrics that plead for the listener to be kind to them-self, and remember what makes them happy- creates a tune that just wraps around you like a warm blanket.

The album’s final two pieces, “I Can Be Afraid Of Anything” and “Mount Hum” are definitely the strongest two of the collection, yet their placement feels somewhat squandered. For starters, they’re both immensely long; standing at seven and eight minutes in length, respectively; meaning they pretty much take up over a quarter of the album. What’s really strange about them, however, is that they sort of contradict each-other. “I Can Be Afraid Of Anything” is a song about movement that builds a rhythm that rises and falls a tide. It’s cyclical structure becomes important once Bello starts repeating the phrases “I really did dig my own hole” and “I’m climbing out”. As the song finally builds to its climax, there’s a real sense of triumph as you imagine this character finally escaping the pit of heady introspection he’s spent the entire album trapped inside. However, this sense of achievement is then diminished by “Mount Hum”, which sort of just drones on over the course of eight minutes, with a lot of vague phrases like “the kids you knew that you forgot you knew”. Don’t get me wrong, it’s echoing guitar chords create a interesting dream-like feel, but this, in turn, seems to contradict the clarity that the previous track strove for.

I need to make one final confession: None of the problems I mentioned above actually came with the first listening. During my initial experience I lay in my bed, letting the music guide me into contemplating my own consciousness and how I’ve let memory shape who I am. It was only when I waked away and really thought about it, that I realized most of this was just meaning I’d placed onto the music. Honestly, listening to this album is a little like being on psychedelics; an experience that, in the moment, feels profound and effecting; but once you walk away and look back, you realize a lot of it was just nice-sounding fluff.

Connecticut rockers The World is a Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid To Die have revealed some new details regarding their new EP Death to New Years. The 2-track EP will officially be released on July 28th through Topshelf Records (both digitally and on vinyl). The band are also doing pre-orders for this release and will be donating $1 from every order to the Pittsburg Action Against Rape. You can check the EP out below.

Death to New Years follows the group’s split 7″ with Rozwell Kid, which was released on June 23rd via Broken World Media. They are also currently working on their sophomore full-length, a follow-up to their 2013 album titled Whenever, If Ever.

They have announced a few Northeastern tour dates with Spraynard and Makeshift Shelters and you can view them below.

The band enters Silver Bullet Studios in Burlington, CT today to begin recording their sophomore full-length and follow-up to 2013’s Whenever, If Ever. In the meantime, they’ll release a split 7-inch with Rozwell Kid June 23 via Broken World Media and a 2-song 7-inch, Death To New Years on July 28 via Topshelf Records.

The World Is A Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid To Die have just released a surprise 7″ titled The Distance. There are only two ways to snag a copy: order one of only 200 copies available online here, or grab one on their upcoming tour. You can view the artwork above and the track listing (as well as their upcoming tour dates) below.

The group just released Between Bodies on October 7th via Broken World Media. This is the band’s first release in a little over a year, serving as a follow-up to their 2013 debut album Whenever, If Ever.

Between Bodies is set to be released on October 7th through Broken World Media. It will be the band’s first release in a little over a year, serving as a follow-up to their 2013 debut album Whenever, If Ever.

Band Spotlight

I write this spotlight with mixed emotions. I'm stoked to have discovered a new band that I would love to sign to Dying Scene Records, but I'm f'ing pissed to not have discovered them early enough to have done so. The Stifled is a Baltimore foursome that just released their self-titled debut EP, and if I didn't know better I'd think this was Dying Scene Records band A Dying Regime partnered up with the singer from DS Records' first signing, Yankee Brutal. Skate punk with metallic undertones. Melodic vocals with a healthy dose of snarls and gang shouted backups. Fast and heavy. Catchy but angry. My sweet spot. Give the EP a spin here and compare it to a couple choice tracks from Yankee Brutal and A Dying Regime and tell me I'm wrong with this comparison.